DICOTYLEDONOUS PLANTS 149 
HYPERICUM, L. 
Herbs, shrubs, or small trees. Leaves sessile, often dotted. 
Flowers yellow, perfect. 
1. H. perforatum, L. Common Sr. JoHnswort. Perennial. 
Stem erect, 1-3 ft. high, 2-ridged, much branched. Leaves linear or 
oblong, obtuse, with translucent veins and dots. Cymes grouped in 
corymbs, many-flowered. Flowers 1 in. in diameter. Sepals acute. 
Petals much longer than the sepals, oblique at the tip and irregularly 
fringed. A common weed in meadows and pastures E. and N. 
2. H. nudicaule, Walt. ORANGE-GRASS, PINE-WEED. Low (4-9 in. 
high), slender annual, with erect, angled or almost winged wiry stem 
and branches. Leaves minute, awl-shaped scales. Corolla about 
1 in. in diameter, usually closing by or before midday. Sandy 
banks and roadsides. 
66. VIOLACEZ. Vi1o.Letr FAMILY. 
Herbs, with simple, alternate leaves, with stipules. Calyx 
of 5 persistent sepals. Corolla of 5 petals, somewhat irreg- 
ular, one petal with a spur. Stamens 5, short, the filaments 
often cohering around the pistil (Fig. 17). Style generally 
club-shaped, with a one-sided stigma, with an opening leading 
to its interior. Pod 1-celled, splitting into 3 valves, each 
bearing a placenta. The seeds are often dispersed by the 
splitting of the elastic valves (Fig. 17). 
VIOLA, Tourn. 
Sepals ear-like at the base. Petals somewhat irregular, 
some of them bearded within, thus affording a foothold for 
bees, the lowest one with a spur at the base. Stamens not 
cohering very much, the two lowermost with spurs which 
reach down into the spur of the lowest petal. Many species 
bear inconspicuous apetalous flowers later than the showy 
ordinary ones and produce most of their seed from these 
closed, self-fertilized flowers. (See Part I, Ch. XXVIII.) 
